


Pointe Shoes and Hockey Pucks

by starrika



Category: Mighty Ducks (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Original Character(s), So many tropes, teen movie tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-06 05:10:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14049627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrika/pseuds/starrika
Summary: Alex Williams arrived at Eden Hall Boarding School an hour before convocation for her freshman year, nervous about meeting her roommate, Les Averman.Aaand, Les totally didn't stand for Leslie. Yup. Her roommate assignment was a dude. Her school year was getting off to a great start.***A take on Mighty Ducks 3 from an outsider's perspective - and a boatload of cheesy teen movie tropes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Went on a tear reading Mighty Ducks fanfic and this plotbunny took hold and wouldn't let go. I have no idea if there's even a fandom for Mighty Ducks tbh, so this is purely self-indulgent cheese. Enjoy!

Alex Williams stopped for a moment to check her room assignment sheet once more, eyebrows coming together as she noted the names on the other doors in the hall. She knew this was a mixed gender floor – although there was a solid door mid-hallway to separate the girls wing from the boys wing – but the names on the doors had her checking the room number once more to be sure she had it right. _Room 248_ , conveniently right next to the dividing door for the floor. She would probably end up hearing boys and girls sneaking back and forth after curfew all night. But still, based on the name tags on the doors around her, she had a growing suspicion that she had ended up on the wrong side of the hall, and she stared at the _Les_ and _Alex_ name tags on the door for a moment before letting out a long huff. She knocked once before slipping her key into the lock, juggling her duffle and her suitcase as she swung the door open.

 

And her roommate was definitely a dude.

 

“I am guessing Les doesn’t stand for Leslie like I thought,” she quipped.

 

The redhead in front of her blinked once, twice. “ _Alex_ Williams?”

 

Alex grinned, threw her bags down and held out her hand. “The one and only. Nice to meet you.”

 

Les was still gaping at her, although he shook her hand pleasantly enough. He was close to six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a pair of glasses in his other hand. Alex had to laugh. “I’m guessing it’s me they’ve got wrong in the system, since we’re on the boys side of the floor. I can go down to the office after convocation and try to get things straightened out. Mind if I keep my bags stashed here until then?”

 

“No, sure, that’s fine,” Les said, with a laugh. “This _is_ technically your room.”

 

Alex flopped onto the empty bed for another laugh, checking her watch. “Only thirty minutes before the assembly. You a freshman too?”

 

Les sat down at one of the desk chairs and set his glasses on the desk. “Uh, yeah.” He seemed positively tongue-tied.

 

Alex looked at the hockey memorabilia hanging on his side of the room. “You a fan or do you play?” she asked, gesturing up at his posters.

 

He grinned at that and seemed to relax a bit. “I’m on the JV team.”

 

“Cool. My little brother plays hockey. Well, he’s seven, so it’s mostly watching a bunch of kids fall on the ice while chasing a puck, but you know, the general intent is hockey.”

 

Les laughed. “That sounds familiar. We were terrible at that age.”

 

Alex laughed with him. “Yeah, well, they’re seven. They’re not supposed to be good – it’s just supposed to be fun.”

 

“You’d be surprised. Hockey is serious business in Minnesota. People get into it.”

 

“Parents get into it,” Alex said, with a roll of her eyes. “Kids just want to play.”

 

“True.”

 

“You from here?” Alex asked, thinking back to his reference of Minnesota.

 

“Pretty close – Brooklyn Park. You?”

 

“Ohio. ‘Burbs in Columbus.” Alex checked her watch again and sighed. “I’m going to go grab a seat. I’ll be back at some point for my bags – if I get lucky, they’ll just move me down the hall so I won’t have to haul all my stuff across the quad,” she said with a sigh. She had sent some boxes ahead, which were stacked at the end of the bed.

 

“I’ll help – some of my teammates probably will too,” Les offered, cheeks a bit red.

 

Alex sat up and gave him a big grin. “Thanks. See you around, Les.” She grabbed her purse and took her hair tie off her wrist, throwing her hair up into a messy ponytail. She was feeling better already about the school. Eden Hall hadn’t been her first choice, but they had given her a sizeable scholarship and they had better alumni connections to help her with college admissions, if things didn’t work out with dance, so she had pushed aside her misgivings and accepted. The student body hadn’t left her with a great impression when she had toured, but Les seemed all right and it sounded like his teammates probably were as well.

 

Alex’s good impression began to fade during convocation. She had taken a seat towards the back by herself, and heard a lot of gossip flying throughout the assembly, including some girl being dragged for the brand of her jeans, of all things. Then a portion of the JV hockey team had crashed the assembly in their rollerblades, and although Alex had stifled a laugh, she didn’t feel amused for very long afterward when gossip turned to the new team and the administration’s PR stunt. General sentiments around her ranged from displeasure to outright hostility, and Alex winced internally at how many times the team was labeled “white trash.” She made a mental note to never disclose that she was here on scholarship.

 

Her mood took an even worse turn after visiting the Dean’s office. His secretary refused to listen to her, telling her that roommate changes could not be submitted in the first week, and talking down to her as if she were a small child. She had tried to explain the issue, only to be interrupted and condescendingly told to try and work out her personality conflicts – Eden Hall encouraged student growth and leadership, which meant that she couldn’t go running to the administration to fix things for her when she didn’t like her roommate. The secretary refused to schedule her an appointment with the Dean or any other administrator, and finally, Alex left in frustration. She could always try to catch the Dean around campus or talk to a teacher on Monday.

 

By the time she made it back to her room, she was scowling and bitterly regretting her choice of school. She had skipped dinner and spent the time walking through campus, trying to burn off her anger. She could only hope the dance program wasn’t as awful as everything else at this shitty, stuck up school. Les wasn’t alone in the room this time when she entered– there was a boy with dark curly hair with him, whose mouth dropped open when she entered.

 

“You really weren’t fucking with me,” he said to Les, who smiled a bit. He didn’t seem to be in as good of spirits as he had been earlier, but then again, neither was Alex.

 

“Oh, it gets better,” Alex replied, flopping down onto the other bed with a scowl. She tossed the other boy a quick wave. “Alex Williams.”

 

“Greg Goldberg,” he replied, giving her a grin.

 

“Better sounds ominous,” Les added.

 

Alex gave them a manic grin. “I may _not_ make an appointment with Dean Buckley. And I should, and I quote, _become an Eden Hall leader and learn to work out my personality conflicts without running to the administration_ . That absolute witch of a secretary would not listen to me when I tried to explain that it wasn’t that you were a dick, but that you _had_ one which would necessitate a room change.” She gave a bitter laugh and shrugged. “Apparently they don’t let anyone request a room change until after the first week. So, I’m going to try again on Monday, with the teachers if I can’t get into the Dean. But I guess you’re stuck with me for now, because I don’t know anyone here I can squeeze in with.” She was a bit panicked over the whole thing, to be honest. She had been nervous about not knowing anyone at boarding school.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Les replied as Greg chortled at her rant. “We have two girls on the team – they’re just down the hall. They’re ridiculously nice. I bet you could share with them so you’re not stuck in testosterone territory.”

 

“Catlady is not ridiculously nice,” Greg protested.

 

“Maybe not to _you_ ,” Les countered.

 

Alex shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

 

That plan died a quick death when they discovered Connie and Julie’s door held the universal signal to go away – a hair tie on the door knob. Les and Greg groaned.

 

“Guess that means Connie and Guy are back on again,” Greg said.

 

“Maybe he’ll stop playing like shit then,” Les added. “Wonder where Julie went.”

 

“Probably trying to talk Portman into staying,” Greg said darkly.

 

The three of them headed back down the hall to the boys’ side, stopping at a door three down from their own. This time, they found a girl who had clearly been crying and a boy looking distinctly uncomfortable.

 

“Guess that means he’s _not_ staying,” Greg added.

 

“Been sexiled, Jules?” Les asked, gesturing to Alex to follow them in.

 

The girl wiped her eyes and laughed. “No _hi, so good to see you, I’ve missed you_ – you know how Connie gets when they kiss and make up. Who’s your friend, boys?”

 

“Funny story,” Les said brightly. “Apparently the administration can’t figure out what makes boys and girls different. Meet my roommate Alex. Alex, this is Fulton and Julie.” Julie started giggling and couldn’t stop, eventually being joined by Greg. Fulton cracked a smile, and the mood in the group seemed to lighten a bit.

 

“Nice to meet you,” Alex added, feeling a bit lost.

 

“Admin wouldn’t listen to her when she tried to switch rooms, so she’s stuck until Monday. I thought she could bunk with you and Connie, but – “Les trailed off.

 

Julie shrugged. “I was going to stay with Fult tonight, since Dean –“ The blonde started to tear up again.

 

“Then why don’t you stay with Alex and Averman can stay with Fulton?” Greg added, trying to head off tears. All of the boys had a deer in the headlights look at the prospect.

 

Julie gave a tearful giggle. “Sure. God, sorry about all the drama. We’re not usually this ridiculous – we just got blindsided that our coach is leaving us, and everyone’s upset. It’s been a day.”

 

Alex shrugged, not sure what to say and feeling like an outsider. Everyone seemed nice enough, if absorbed in their own group. “No, it’s fine. So how long have you guys played hockey together?” she asked. The Dean had talked about the team as the Junior Goodwill Games champions, but he had focused more on their big win, rather than the team itself.

 

“Oh, forever pretty much. Most of the guys played pee wee in the Twin Cities, and then there’s a few of us from out of state who joined two years ago,” Julie said.

 

“So, we’re all one big dysfunctional family,” Les quipped.

 

“Don’t say family, that makes it sound like Connie and Guy are kissing cousins,” Greg added with a face.

 

“Connie and Guy have been joined at the lip since third grade,” Les added.

 

Alex laughed. “Must be nice to come in with friends.”

 

“Do you play any sports?” Julie asked.

 

Alex shook her head. “You don’t want to see me try to play sports. I’m in the dance intensive, though,” she added.

 

Greg opened his mouth, but Julie beat him to the punch. “Don’t even think about it, Goldberg.”

 

“What?” Greg protested, all mock-innocence.

 

“You _know_ what. No one needs to hear that joke about the splits again.”

 

“Me- _ow_ , Catlady,” Les cracked. “Put the claws away.”

 

“Jeez, that time of the month?” Greg added.

 

“Knock it off,” Fulton said darkly, before Julie could spit out whatever retort she’d been forming. She still stood up abruptly, ruffling Fulton’s hair.

 

“Bye, Fult. You coming, Alex?”

 

Alex stood up. “Nice to meet you guys. See you later, Les – thanks for helping me out.”

 

It took her a few moments to follow Julie out the door, who was standing in the hallway still looking angry. “They’re better than most guys, but they’re still dicks. Well, not Fult. Or Adam, for that matter,” she added. “Did you meet Adam?”

 

Alex shook her head as she unlocked the door to her room. “Just you guys. I only got here a little bit before convocation. Sorry about all the boxes – today has been a mess all around.”

 

“Tell me about it,” Julie replied, toeing off her sneakers and sitting down on Averman’s bed. “At least I know the sheets are clean this early in the year.”

 

Alex laughed. “So where are you from?” she asked, grabbing some sheets out of the duffle to make her bed.

 

“Bangor, Maine. You?”

 

“Columbus, Ohio. At least you’re prepared for a Minnesota winter. I’m starting to second guess myself when I see how cold it already gets at night in September. I like snow, but I don’t know if I like it _that_ much.”

 

“Wimp,” Julie said with a laugh. “It’s not bad. It’s pretty warm during the day, and I think you’ve got until the end of October for serious snow.”

 

“You spend your life in an ice rink. Your perception of cold is warped,” Alex retorted, grabbing a quilt from one of her other bags.

 

“You’ve just got to eat some extra cookies, add some body fat for extra insulation,” Julie joked.

 

Alex laughed. “Oh, is that all,” she snarked.

 

“What type of dance do you do?” Julie asked.

 

“A little bit of everything. Ballet is my focus, though.”

 

“What’s the dance program like?”

 

Alex shrugged. “Well, I haven’t received an official schedule yet. But we’re supposed to have technique class at 8:30. Then some academics and more dance in the afternoon. Rehearsals for shows and anything else in the evenings. Some stuff on the weekends. It’s a pre-professional dance program affiliated with the Milwaukee Ballet. So hopefully I can make it as a professional,” she added, trailing off.

 

“Cool. That’s intense. Apparently, we’re going to have two a day practices for hockey with our new coach. I think some of the boys might die,” Julie added with a laugh. “Still, I don’t know how you’re going to do that every day. It sounds exhausting.”

 

“I think it helps if you like what you’re doing. How long have you been playing hockey?”

 

“True. My older brothers started making me play goalie for their pickup matches when I was five. I got hooked pretty quickly. I want to play in college and try to make the Olympic team.”

 

“That’s awesome. They made it sound like you guys are crazy good at the assembly.”

 

Julie laughed. “Yeah, they made it sound like we’re the Miracle on Ice. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think we suck. Some of my teammates are _really_ good, have been playing AAA Bantam leagues and stuff. But high school is a big step up from what a lot of us were doing before. And we’ve not played together as a team other than pickup scrimmages since the Goodwill Games. And now we’re going to have a different coach,” she added, trailing off.

 

“And you just found that out today?” Alex added, piecing together bits of conversation as she pulled out her pajamas.

 

Julie wiped away a tear angrily. “Yup, just blindsided us. Got us all to commit to Eden Hall and then left us in the dust as soon as a better opportunity came up for him. A bunch of my teammates were so, _so_ pissed - they’ve already dropped out. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Coach Bombay was shitty like this during the Goodwill Games, but he apologized and made things fun in the end – and we won, so it was easy to forgive him. But he’s always been chasing the next best thing, so he was bound to leave us at some point. I don’t really care about him,” she added. “I’ve played under lots of coaches. That’s fine. But Dean – he’s my best friend – he dropped out. I tried to talk him out of leaving, but –“ Julie shrugged, looking forlorn.

 

“That sucks,” Alex said quietly.

 

“Yeah. The guys who have been with Bombay since they were kids are real messed up. Charlie practically worships him. So yeah, sorry for being a drama llama, it’s been a shitty day.”

 

“It’s fine, no worries. I still can’t believe they stuck me with a guy,” Alex added with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

 

Julie laughed too. “At least it was Averman. We met some of the varsity hockey guys, they seem like real assholes. It could have been a lot worse.”

 

“No kidding.”

 

The two girls ended up chatting for half the night, and when Alex finally drifted off to sleep, she felt a little better about Eden Hall. She might have just sat in a bad spot for convocation and the student body might not be as bad as she thought. Julie seemed nice. And she probably would be able to get her room situation fixed once she talked to a teacher. She would just have to go around that absolute witch of a secretary at the Dean’s office. Everything would be fine.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was _not_ fine. On Monday, Alex had tried to explain the situation to three of her teachers, and had been told each time to go to the administration before she could even get the whole roommate story out. She would have tried the head of the dance program – but Ms. Petrova was out for a family emergency for at least the next two weeks. She tried the Dean’s office again as well, only to be rudely rebuffed by the secretary once more. By the time she made it back to her room Monday night, Alex was so frustrated she could scream.

 

The room was empty at least, so no one saw her throw her backpack and dance bag into the corner in a fit of anger. After a few minutes pacing the room, Alex sighed and fished out her books to start her homework. No sense in getting behind just yet. She settled herself into a split, laying flat on her stomach and resting her chin on her hands as she started reading her biology text.

 

Fifteen minutes later, the door banged open and Les entered, looking just as angry. He stopped abruptly, blinking at Alex’s pose on the floor. “Jesus. Goldie wasn’t joking about how much dancers can bend,” he blurted out, then flushed red.

 

Alex looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t be a pig,” she said, but then laughed. “It’s kind of a pre-requisite, you know. Bad practice?”

 

“Our new coach is a dick,” he said shortly.

 

“Seems to be all they hire at Eden Hall,” Alex replied.

 

“No luck with the teachers then? I tried to go to the Dean’s office myself but got the same song and dance about no change requests the first week,” he added.

 

“Nope,” Alex drawled, letting the _p_ pop.

 

“I can go sleep at Fulton’s again. I think Julie’s back in with Connie tonight. Mind if I study here beforehand? Fulton likes to play heavy metal on blast and there’s no way I’m getting anything done in his room.” He seemed hesitant in asking her, as if he were doing something taboo. He was still sporting a heavy blush.

 

Alex shrugged. “It _is_ your room. As long as you don’t mind me on the floor stretching while I work.”

 

“No, no it’s fine,” he replied, stepping over her. His voice cracked a bit. Alex studiously pretended not to hear and went back to her biology text. He settled down at his desk, pulling out a chemistry book and putting on a pair of glasses.

 

“You’re not in freshman bio?” Alex asked.

 

Les flushed again. “Uh, no. I did biology last year. I’m a little ahead in some classes.”

 

Alex raised an eyebrow. “What else are you taking?”

 

“Well, freshman English, freshman German. Anatomy, Calculus, and uh, IP in History.”

 

“Calc is what, junior year? And you’re doing an independent History? So you’re kind of a genius is what you’re saying,” Alex said with a friendly grin.

 

He looked even more embarrassed. “I don’t know about that.”

 

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed. If you’re smart, you’re smart. I don’t know why some jocks get all hung up on that. _And_ I’ll probably ask you for help with Geometry at some point. I was fine with Algebra, but Geometry is quickly turning into my nemesis.”

 

He blinked, then looked inordinately pleased. “Okay. Sure.”

 

They lapsed back in silence, although Alex could see him sneaking glances at her every once in a while. She finished up her biology reading fairly quick and moved on to history, jotting a few notes in the notebook beside her.

 

“Are you really going to sit like that all night?” he asked her, eyeing her outstretched legs.

 

Alex was amused. “Yeah, probably. I wasn’t lying when I said I needed to stretch. Does it bother you?”

 

“I’m having sympathy pain over here,” he joked.

 

“I’m fairly sure all athletes are supposed to stretch,” Alex replied, highlighting a passage in her book.

 

“I’m fairly sure I can’t touch my toes,” Les replied in the same airy tone she had used.

 

Alex looked up at him again, quirking her eyebrow. “You should probably work on that.”

 

Les blew out a long breath. “Yeah, probably,” he said, more serious. “Our new coach wasn’t too impressed with us. We’ve got a lot of stuff we should have been working on.”

 

“Don’t sound so down on yourself. From what Julie said, it sounds like your old coach wasn’t very good at training any of you, so it’s not your fault.”

 

Les blinked. “Julie said that?” After a moment, he added, “Still. There are some guys on the team who really take hockey seriously, run all sorts of drills on their own, do all this extra training without Coach Bombay telling them to.”

 

“And you don’t take it seriously?”

 

“Well, I do. I mean, I like it a lot and I practice and I want to win, of course. I’m a solid player, but I’m not a prodigy. I’m not deluding myself I have a shot at the pros, I know the odds better than that.”

 

“You mean the Minnesota Miracle team _isn’t_ going to go pro to a man and take the NHL by storm? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you,” she replied. “What do you want to do then? Are you going to play in college?”

 

Les shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I want to go pre-med, so I don’t know if I’ll have the time. I’ve heard pre-med is really hard. And I guess it depends on how things go with hockey here. Scouting, you know.”

 

“Well, you’re apparently ridiculously smart, so you could probably do both.”

 

Les smiled, looking a bit embarrassed and turned back to his book. Alex shifted, bringing her legs into a butterfly position, and folded herself forward once more. They studied for the rest of the evening in silence, until Les slipped out the door ten minutes before lights out to go stay with Fulton. If he wasn’t a boy, Alex would have been pretty satisfied with her roommate assignment. She had been dreading some chatterbox who made it hard to study.


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the week went the same. Alex ate lunch with the students in her dance program, slowly getting to know the seven girls and two boys in her grade of the dance intensive. With Ms. Petrova gone, they had spent their class time trying to follow the instructions she had left with the substitute and fretting about casting for the first show of the year. Most nights, Alex ended up studying with Les after dinner. Sometimes Julie would join them, particularly if she was being sexiled for the night – which happened more often than Alex would have expected for the first week of school.

 

All of her boxes were still piled in the corner of the room, and Alex was quickly losing patience with living out of her suitcases in anticipation of moving dorm rooms. Les had been easy going, bunking in with Fulton, but she was sure that he was probably annoyed with going down the hall to change and sleep. He didn’t complain much about anything, other than the occasional gripe about the new coach, and Alex was amused to see he hadn’t lost his tendency to blush when she complimented him. For all that he chatted with Connie and Julie just fine, he seemed to be easily flustered when it came to any other girl, although he was quick to give her help with geometry any time she asked. Alex hoped he wouldn’t mind studying together even after she moved out.

 

Unfortunately, her third conversation with the Dean’s secretary went about as well as the first two. As in, it went not at all. By the time Alex was back to her room, she had worked herself into a real temper over the situation. She kicked the door open, fully expecting it to be empty, as she usually made it back before Les. He startled, looking up from the desk, and Alex could see him sporting a black eye.

 

“Jesus, Les. What happened to you?” Alex asked, bitchy secretary momentarily forgotten.

 

“Bit of a thing at practice, it’s not as bad as it looks,” he said with a shrug. “What’s gotten into you?”

 

Throwing her bags down with a huff of frustration, Alex snapped. “We are living in a _farce_!”

 

“Tangled with the dragon lady again?” he asked, taking his glasses off and turning around to look at her properly.

 

“She is _such_ a bitch. This time, I was told that she wouldn’t schedule me an appointment basically because I was on scholarship – and _beggars can’t be choosers_ when it comes to room assignments. The gall of her! As if there’s no difference between a _talent_ scholarship and one for financial need – not that there’s anything wrong with that, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a snob. But honestly, how would _she_ even know whether or not I could afford to attend without the scholarship? I’m ninety nine point nine percent sure my stepmonster would have sold her Lexus to get me out of the house, so the scholarship is pretty much meaningless, but _Jesus_ . What if I had a serious problem that I needed to see the Dean about? What the _hell_ is her problem?”

 

“Glad to know I’m not a _serious_ problem,” Les said.

 

“Oh, shut up. You know what I mean. You’re fine. I haven’t had a problem sharing with you at all. I just want to _unpack_ and actually be done with this!”

 

Les shrugged. “So unpack.”

 

Alex stopped pacing and turned to face him. “What?”

 

“Unpack. There’s no point in stressing about it any more than you already have. Just unpack your stuff and make this your room. It’s not like you’re going to get in trouble – we’ve already heard they don’t do room check and curfew is on the honor system because we are _Eden Hall leaders_ ,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m pretty sure the Dean himself would have to catch you absolutely wasted to even get a detention at this place. You’re not bothering me.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Well, I mean, if I bother you and you want to go somewhere else, I get it,” Les trailed off, looking embarrassed.

 

“What? No. No, you’re fine, Les. I just feel bad because it’s like this isn’t even your room. It’s not fair to you that you have to go down the hall to sleep.”

 

He shrugged again. “It doesn’t bother me. Besides, it gives Jules somewhere to go since Connie and Guy are rabbits.”

 

Alex giggled at that. She had only met Connie once in the past week, as no one had been exaggerating when they had described the couple as attached at the lip. When those two were on, they were apparently very on (each other). “Well, if you’re sure?”

 

“Wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

 

That took the wind out of her sails, and she sat down on her bed with a big exhale of breath. “You’re a pretty good guy, Les.”

 

“Pull out your pretty pink tutus and _jazz_ this place up.”

 

“That was a terrible pun,” Alex replied with a laugh, throwing a pillow at him. It went incredibly short, and flopped to the ground between the beds, which set Les to laughing at her. She picked up the pillow with a huff and thwapped him on the arm with it. He grabbed the pillow off his own bed, and hit her on the side of the leg.

 

“Oh it is on.”

 

“Like Donkey Kong,” he replied with a grin, managing to bean her in the side again.

 

By the time Julie opened the door, Alex had Les pinned to the bed on his side, and she was straddling his legs to hit him in the back of the head with a pillow. Both were laughing hysterically as he blindly tried to shove her off of him.

 

“Am I interrupting?” Julie asked, grinning.

 

Les finally got a good shove in, and Alex slid off his legs and onto the floor with a thump. She tried to catch her breath, face flushed from giggling. “Hey, Julie.”

 

Les sat up, face just as red and hair in disarray. “Alex tried to tangle with admin again.”

 

Alex rolled her eyes. “No luck. Apparently, scholarship students are not allowed to bring any concerns to the Dean, as beggars can’t be choosers.”

 

“Are you kidding me?” Julie replied, grabbing a seat at Alex’s desk.

 

“I wish.”

 

“So I told her to just stay here. I can keep sleeping with Fulton and then you have a place to crash when you need it,” Les added.

 

“Sleeping with Fulton, hey?” Julie replied, waggling her eyebrows.

 

Les chucked a pillow at her face in response. Unlike Alex, his pillow hit the intended target. Julie fired it back at him, but before the melee could get going again, she held up her hands. “Truce, truce! I really do need to study for bio. We have that quiz tomorrow, remember?” she said to Alex.

 

Alex sighed, flopping back onto her own bed. “Don’t remind me. And I want to start unpacking, too.”

 

“So you’re staying?”

 

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ve tried – I give up. If Les was a jerk, I probably wouldn’t let it go, but at this point I just want to unpack my stuff.”

 

“Why don’t you call your parents?”

 

Alex got up to fish her books out of her backpack, not really looking at either of them. “You know those movies where the stepmother threatens to ship the kid off to boarding school because she’s a bitch? That’s pretty much my life, so.” She shrugged, holding up her bio book. “Quiz me.”


	4. Chapter 4

When Ms. Petrova returned, Alex’s schedule became even crazier. Ms. Petrova was determined to make up for the two weeks she had lost, and scheduled all sorts of extra practices to teach the choreography for the first performance of the year, which was a collaboration with the Milwaukee Ballet for a production of Don Quixote. Les was busier too, with the start of hockey season creeping ever closer. It was common for the both of them to have bags of ice on some body part as they studied.

 

Alex had hoped to make better friends in the dance intensive, but the cutthroat competition of the program had rendered the group coolly polite to one another. They ate lunch together – and they were perfectly civil so far, with none of the enmity of the Varsity and JV hockey teams or the dance world horror stories of broken glass in pointe shoes – but aside from her classmate Claire, Alex had not made any real friendships with the other dancers. However, she did have her hockey friends. Les, Julie, and Alex had made a solid study trio, with the elusive Connie joining them any time she and Guy were on the outs. Julie had tried to coax Fulton into joining them, but he had remained aloof, still smarting from Dean Portman’s absence and the style of Coach Orion. Goldberg and Julie fought like cats and dogs – no pun intended – so Alex rarely saw Goldie, not that she minded. Where Les was funny and sarcastic, Goldie typically ended up offending someone with one of his “jokes.” As September slipped into October, Alex might not have loved Eden Hall, but she could at least say she was content.

 

When it came time for the season opener for the JV hockey team, Alex was thrilled to see her friends play. It hadn’t taken much to persuade Claire to go with her, although neither of them knew much about the rules of hockey. They sat in the back row, away from the crowd, so they could chat as they watched – and so their support for the JV team could slide under the radar, as the team was still on the outs with most of the school. Alex knew this game was important to having the team be accepted, and if they could win big and prove their worth, it would go a long way in quieting some of the haters.

 

“What number is Les?” Claire asked quietly, as they sat down after the National Anthem.

 

“Four. Connie is eighteen, and Julie is six, although it will be pretty easy to tell with her in the goal.”

 

“And by size,” Claire added slyly. Alex snorted at the dig against Goldberg. It might be mean, but it was true. The boy was _fat_.

 

At first, the game went well. Alex was thrilled to see them come out against Blake with an early lead, and Les was on fire finding open teammates to score goals. When they racked up another goal, bringing Eden Hall to a 9 goal lead, Alex bit her lip to keep from cheering loudly. Right now, she was a non-entity at school (and the war between JV and Varsity), and she’d like to keep it that way.

 

Once things started to go to hell, however, they went fast. Blake rallied, and it seemed like there weren’t any Eden Hall players helping guard the net. Each time Blake scored another goal, Eden Hall seemed to lose a bit more intensity on the ice, until finally the game pulled even – and Blake managed to eke out a win from a team that had a 9 goal lead.

 

“Shit, that was bad,” Claire muttered under her breath as the stands cleared.

 

“Yeah, it was. Julie was worried about this, you know,” Alex replied quietly.

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, some of the guys hadn’t been training in the off-season. And they aren’t taking direction from the coach so it’s been a real mess. She’s been really frustrated.”

 

“This is going to make things worse at school, too.”

 

“No kidding.”

 

When she made it back to the dorms, Alex ended up pacing the room for a while, thinking about the game. She didn’t really know enough about hockey to know where it went wrong. And she was worried about her friends, who had to be disappointed. She knew they had lost before, but she didn’t think they had lost big like this. It would be bad by itself, but with the added pressure to prove their worth to the school, the loss had to really sting. She hoped Coach Orion wasn’t being too hard on them. Finally tiring of pacing, Alex slumped at her desk chair, although there was no way she could focus on homework after that. She tapped a pen on her desk, checking the time once more.

 

After waiting another hour, Alex decided Les probably wasn’t coming back, thinking Les might have taken a change of clothes with him and just went straight to Fulton’s. She threw on her pajama pants and a tank top and stretched out on her bed to read a book. She was just starting to get sleepy when the door opened, an hour after curfew, and she looked up to see Les wearing soaking wet clothes and looking furious.

 

“Is it raining?” she asked, looking out the window only to see clear sky.

 

“Varsity threw all our clothes, our gear, everything in the shower. I’m lucky I didn’t have any homework in my bag.” He threw his hockey bag down and started rummaging in the closet.

 

“You should have called me. I would have brought you dry clothes.”

 

“Didn’t even think of it.” Les turned to look at her and immediately blushed and looked up at the ceiling.

 

Alex realized it was abundantly clear she was wearing a tank top without a bra and muttered _sorry_ while pulling a sweatshirt over her head. She looked at Les in his wet clothes and blinked, noticing just how many muscles that wet shirt was clinging to. It was her turn to blush.

 

“Um. I’m sorry about the game, too.”

 

Les stopped looking at the ceiling. “You went?”

 

“ _Of course_ I went. You guys are my friends, why wouldn’t I go?”

 

Les cracked a smile. “Did you even know what was going on?”

 

“I know when you pass to someone and they score a goal that’s an assist – and you did that a lot.”

 

“Learning, you are, Padawan.”

 

“You dork,” Alex replied, but she couldn’t help grinning. “Go get out of those wet clothes and stop dripping on the carpet.”

 

“Yes, ma’am.”


	5. Chapter 5

Les might have been uncharacteristically tight-lipped about his disappointment with the Blake game, but Julie wasn’t. The two girls took their books outside to study while it was still Indian Summer, but Alex found herself mostly listening to Julie vent about the team and its rocky transition to high school hockey, Coach Orion, and the escalating feud with the Varsity team.

 

“Les said that Orion is a dick,” Alex commented.

 

Julie shrugged. “He can be, sometimes. But he’s not terrible. It’s not like he’s calling us names or running us through suicides all the time to punish us. He’s just pushing us to get better at defense. _And_ he seems to realize that I’m the better goalie, which is nice. He’s just not Bombay. So all the original Ducks are pissy pants about that, because Charlie is a drama llama and just won’t let things go. And I guess I shouldn’t say original Ducks – I don’t think Adam ever cared that much about Bombay, not that he’d say that out loud. I’m really not sure why Dean got so upset, to be honest. It’s not the same for us. Bombay taught a lot of those kids how to play hockey, some of them how to skate. He was practically Charlie’s dad growing up. So it’s different, I get it. But they’re all mad at Orion rather than being mad at Bombay like they should be.”

 

“I don’t think your team would be able to handle ballet. You don’t know blunt and harsh until you have a Russian teacher who thinks you’re nowhere near your potential,” Alex said with a laugh.

 

“Sounds like the Iceland team we played in the games. Their coach was _brutal_. But I’ve kept up with a lot of their players, and they have an insane amount of guys on the fast track to the pros.”

 

“Orion was a pro, right? So that’s probably it. He’s just pushing you guys because he sees potential.”

 

“Or he’s trying to get the ones without potential to wash out,” Julie muttered, more quietly.

 

Alex paused, thinking it over for a minute. “Do you really think so?”

 

“Half the team did nothing but dick around over the last two years. Some of them even bought into the media hype – Dwayne thinks he can go teach the pros a master class in puck handling,” Julie added, rolling her eyes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Orion's going hard right now so he can see who’s willing to put in the work.”

 

“Do you think Les is going to hang on?”

 

Julie laughed, giving Alex an amused look. “Averman’s not going anywhere. He may not be flashy, but he’s good. You don’t notice him when Banks and Germaine are scoring goals left and right, but he’s been playing AAA Bantam all the same. Plus, he wouldn’t give up a full ride to a good school over a hockey coach. You worried about losing your scandalous roommate?” she teased.

 

Alex grinned. “Maybe. I just don’t know what I’m looking at, you know? At the Blake game you guys looked great, until you didn’t. It’s hard to tell who’s a good player and who isn’t, other than scoring goals.”

 

“Probably the same if I tried to watch the dance group try to do leaps around the stage.”

 

At this point, they were interrupted by a guy in a Varsity jacket, and Alex mentally groaned, hoping this wasn’t another round of the stupid JV-Varsity pranks. She’d rather not get caught in the crossfire, thank you very much.

 

“Hey, Julie.”

 

Julie rolled her eyes and scowled, but it wasn’t much different than how she interacted with Goldberg, so Alex relaxed.

 

“Scooter.”

 

He seemed to take that as an invitation, as he flopped down onto the grass next to her. “Who’s your friend?”

 

“Alex Williams. Alex, this is Scooter Holland. He’s the Varsity goalie – and an absolute pest.”

 

He grinned, unfazed by her annoyed tone, and held out his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you. You a freshman, too?”

 

Alex nodded. He seemed genuine enough. “Yes.”

 

“And we’re _trying_ to study for bio, do you mind?” Julie added.

 

He looked at their books, which were closed, and his grin grew. “Yes, hard at work, apparently.”

 

“Oh, shut up,” Julie retorted.

 

“How’s classes so far?”

 

“A little crazy, but fine,” Alex said, when it looked like Julie wouldn’t respond.

 

Scooter nudged Julie’s leg with his sneaker. “Come on, don’t be like that. All we did was wet your clothes. Pranks are a tradition between the JV and Varsity teams. Plus, you got us back with the liquid nitrogen. You can’t still be mad.”

 

Julie cracked a tiny grin at that, while Alex’s eyebrows rose. “You did _what_ with liquid nitrogen?”

 

“I plead the fifth.”

 

“It was a good prank. They stole a tank from the labs and froze our clothes,” Scooter told Alex with a laugh.

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Seriously. C’mon Julie. A few harmless pranks and things settle down. All the teams haze the new kids. It’s just how things are. Just because Riley’s a dick doesn’t mean we all are.”

 

Julie looked less mulish at that. “How’s Adam doing with Varsity?”

 

Scooter shook his head. “Better than you’d think for a freshman. Unpredictable, hard to block, although some of that is because he’s new. He’s keeping up, although he’ll have to put on some weight to go up against the bigger enforcers. Good wingspan. Probably going to warm the bench a lot, but Wilson will give him playing time.”

 

Julie nodded. “Good. I was worried he’d end up riding the bench most of the season. He’d hate that.”

 

Scooter shook his head again. “Nah. His older brother Michael came through here – Wilson knows he’s got the chops.”

 

“Good,” Julie repeated, with a decisive nod. “I’m glad for him.”

 

“Have you told him that?” Scooter replied. “Not my place, but he’s been walking around looking like his dog died.”

 

Julie sighed. “Anyone who says girls have more drama than boys is lying.”

 

“Hey, girls! Sorry I’m late,” Claire interrupted, waving her biology book. “Think we’re ready for next week’s test?”

 

Scooter grinned. “I think that’s my cue. Nice to meet you, Alex. See you around, Julie.”

 

As soon as he had moved out of earshot, it was Alex’s turn to nudge Julie’s leg with her foot and give her a Cheshire grin. Claire giggled and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

 

“Oh, don’t you start,” Julie replied with a huff.


	6. Chapter 6

Naively, Alex thought things would settle down between JV and Varsity after that. Instead, tensions continued to escalate between the two teams, and between the Ducks and Orion. She’d told Claire more than once that the dance and theater kids had absolutely nothing on the amount of drama the JV hockey team generated. If she didn’t feel so bad for Julie and Les, and to a smaller extent Adam, it would have been funny to watch the Ducks go to war with what seemed like the school.

 

Things came to a head the night the teams went out to dinner. She’d caught Les leaving as she came in, wearing a tie, and he had told her they were off to a dinner with Varsity. She thought Scooter had been right after all, and Alex hoped that the two teams burying the hatchet would help some of the overall attitude of the student body – and Scooter’s obvious pursuit of Julie. The sophomore goalie was pretty cute, after all.

 

Instead, she got a call to the room about an hour before curfew from Julie, who was incandescently furious. Not only had Varsity left them holding the bill for dinner at an expensive restaurant, they’d also left them off campus without a ride back.

 

“We’re scrubbing toilets and I have no idea how we’re going to pay for this. But can you try to find some way for us to get a ride back? It’s at least a two hour walk and I just – I hate this fucking school,” Julie said, right before her minute on the payphone was up.

 

“I’ll figure something out,” Alex replied. She pulled on a sweatshirt and sneakers, deciding to try Claire first, as she had a senior boyfriend with a car. Before she finished tying her shoes, there was a light knock on the door, and Adam Banks quickly slipped inside, shutting it behind him.

 

“Please tell me you didn’t know what Varsity was planning.”

 

“I didn’t, not that it matters,” he muttered sullenly.

 

“Oh, quit with the pity party. What do you want? I’m trying to figure out how to get them a ride back.”

 

“I thought you might. They probably haven’t settled the bill. I don’t think – _Rick_ knew. But I don’t think the rest of the team even realized they couldn’t pay. They’re all so used to having money that it never even occurred to them….” Adam trailed off, then pulled a credit card out of his wallet. “When you go pick them up, pay the bill for me?”

 

“Why don’t you come with me?”

 

“You don’t get it. That would only make it worse.”

 

“You’re right, I _don’t_ get it.”

 

Adam sighed. “It’s a long story. Just, use the card and keep it quiet, ok? You can get it back to me tomorrow.”

 

“You trust me with Daddy’s black Amex?” Alex teased, trying to lighten his mood a bit. All she got was a wan grin, before he slipped out of the room as quietly as he had come in.

 

Luckily, Claire had excellent skills in persuasion (Alex really didn’t want to know), and so her boyfriend Jake shuttled the team back to campus for $20 in gas money and a promise never to let on that he was involved. Alex settled the bill with the manager, leaving the team thinking that their cleanup duties had handled the matter, and held back so she wouldn’t have to ride back to campus with Conway, who had worked himself into a righteous fury. She and Les were the final ones left, as Jake could only fit four at a time in his car, and they sat silently outside the restaurant on a damp stone ledge. It was not how Alex had envisioned her Friday night.

 

“Did you pay the bill?” Les asked, startling Alex out of her thoughts.

 

“Um.”

 

“Alex…”

 

Alex was silent for a moment. She didn’t want to lie to Les, but Adam had asked her to keep things quiet about his involvement. “Did you say anything to the team?”

 

Les shook his head. “No. But you didn’t answer the question.”

 

“Do you promise not to say anything to anyone on the team? Seriously, not _one_ person.”

 

Les looked at her for a long moment, and sighed. “Sure.”

 

“I paid, but I wasn’t the one who paid.”

 

“Banks.”

 

“Got it in one. Give the man a prize,” she added, doing jazz hands for the invisible crowd.

 

“Charlie’s going to be pissed,” Les muttered.

 

“Charlie’s _always_ going to be pissed. He’s in a perpetual state of angst,” Alex replied. “ _And_ , you promised not to say anything.”

 

“I won’t. I don’t run my mouth.”

 

“You run your mouth _all the time_.”

 

“Not like that – you know what I mean.”

 

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she said, bumping her shoulder against his. They lapsed into silence again. Les scuffed one of his dress shoes along the stone wall.

 

“When’s the show you have coming up?”

 

“Three weeks from tonight.”

 

“They selling tickets at the canteen?”

 

Alex blinked. “Yeah. We do two shows here before the show goes up in Milwaukee.”

 

“Ok, good.”

 

Alex blinked again. “You’re going?”

 

“Of course I’m going. You’ve come to all my hockey games so far. I can go watch you twirl around for a show.”

 

“I don’t have that big of a part.”

 

“So? I don’t play every minute.”

 

“There’s no words. It’s just dance. ”

 

Les rolled his eyes. “Duh.”

 

“It’s Don Quixote. You won’t know what’s going on.”

 

“Read the book last year.”

 

“You’re probably going to be bored. I mean, it’s not like hockey. Guys don’t usually -”

 

Les frowned and looked at her. “Do you not want me to go?”

 

Alex shrugged. “I mean, you _can_. But you’ll hate it. Guys always hate stuff like that,” she mumbled.

 

“I’ll make Banks go with me. Penance for his sins.”

 

Alex shoved him off the ledge they were sitting on and he yelped.


	7. Chapter 7

The dinner prank was like pouring gasoline on a fire, although Alex only found out about the (side) JV-Varsity game and its fallout after the fact. She had Don Quixote rehearsal for most of Saturday, and she was so worried about impressing the professional dancers that she didn’t spare much of a thought for what had happened the night before with the dinner prank. The freshman class was background characters for the ballet, mainly gypsies and townspeople, which gave Alex plenty of time to watch the professional dancers at work. As she followed the woman cast at Kitri, she decided she had picked the right school. She would have been hard pressed to work so closely with a professional company at any of the other schools she had considered. Being able to be in a pre-professional program that was so closely tied to a company was a golden opportunity. If she worked hard for the next four years, she could go pro and it would be _her_ with the lead role. It was that thought which pushed her when her feet and ankles began to ache.

 

“Do you think Jake would give us a ride back?” she joked to Claire during one of their last breaks.

 

“Think they might frown on driving a car across the green.”

 

“Ah, damn.”

 

“I know, I think I’m going to die if we repeat this scene again,” Claire whispered, then muffled a groan when the director called for their group once more.

  
  
“You should have had more than an apple for lunch,” Alex whispered back. She felt exhausted even though she had eaten more – she wasn’t sure how Claire or some of the other girls who barely ate were still standing.

 

By the time she was trudging back towards the dorms across campus, the only thing Alex wanted was a shower and some ice for her feet. She hadn’t expected just how many times the director would demand repetitions of their scene, expecting perfection every time. She was pretty sure her blisters had ripped open and her feet were rubbed raw. A cheerleader passed her, eyeing her sweaty hair plastered back from her head and her layered sweatpants over her rolled up tights. Alex rolled her eyes. She liked to look pretty, but she was never going to look fresh coming from seven hours of dance. There were way too many girls at this school who cared about how they looked at every moment of the day. It had to be exhausting.

 

Les was laying on his bed when she got back to the dorm, once again sporting a black eye and a nasty looking split to his lip. He was tossing a nerf ball up toward the ceiling and catching it, rather than studying. Even without the bruises, that would have been the first sign something was wrong. She hardly ever saw him without a book.

 

“Shouldn’t you be icing that? Or _that_?” Alex gestured, dropping her dance bag with a sigh. She limped over to her closet to find some clean clothes and her shower caddy. She wondered if she would get in trouble for dragging a chair into the shower so that she didn’t have to stand in it.

 

“Yeah,” Les muttered, but he didn’t move.

 

“Go get yourself some ice.” she told him, shutting her closet door and starting to organize her things.

 

“You need some?” He had finally stopped throwing the ball and was sitting up to look at her. She must have looked as rough as she felt for him to notice.

 

“Yeah,” Alex said, wincing at bit as bent down to grab her shower sandals from underneath the bed. She was definitely going to be sore tomorrow. She didn’t know how she was going to make it through another six hours of dance the next day. When Eden Hall had promised the dance intensive would prepare her for professional performances, they weren’t kidding.

 

“If there was a problem, yo I’ll solve it,” Les quipped.

 

Alex rolled her eyes and left to go shower. “Thanks, Vanilla Ice.”

  
She took a long time the shower, leaning up against the tile wall with her eyes closed and trying to summon the energy to wash her hair. She was starving, but all she wanted to do was _sleep_. Not that either of those things would be happening for hours – she had an English paper to write that she had been putting off with all her rehearsals. She sighed, forcing herself to grab the shampoo and get moving. The sooner she started the paper, the sooner she would be done. She had a feeling she would have no energy for homework tomorrow night after another round of practice.

  
  
She tiredly pulled on a clean pair of sweats and braided her wet hair before limping back to her room. Les may have been a dork about it, but he had done one better than a bag of ice - there was a plastic bin full of half melted ice by her desk. Alex shoved her shower caddy back into her closet and tossed her clothes into the basket.

  
  
“Did you steal someone’s trash can? And is this clean?”

 

Les stopped humming _Ice, Ice Baby_ and grinned, trying to look innocent. “Me, steal?”

 

Alex paused in rolling up her sweatpant leg, kicking off her shower sandals. “Les, if you seriously stole some grody trash can...”

 

“It’s clean, it’s Adam’s.”

 

“Adam’s trash can?” Alex said suspiciously. She eyed the bin, trying to figure out if it was clean or dirty.

 

“Adam’s hockey-is-serious-business-plastic-bin-for-icing.” He was still grinning when he picked the nerf ball back up.

 

“It’s a trash can, isn’t it,” Alex said flatly.

 

“Yeah, but he doesn’t _use_ it for trash. He really does ice his legs after sprint practice. He’s kind of a freak.”

 

Alex finished rolling up her sweatpants and sat down at the desk chair, taking a deep breath before plunging her legs into the ice up to her knees. “Fuck,” she hissed. At this point, she didn’t care if it was a dirty trash can, her legs felt like they were on fire and she needed to ice.

 

“See, this is why I don’t take hockey seriously,” Les replied. “No one should work so hard that they need an ice bath.”

 

“Pretty sure you don’t take anything seriously,” Alex quipped, knowing he was putting on a front. She had seen Les icing something nearly every night as he studied, but he always acted like everything was a lark, from hockey to homework. It was like he didn’t want people to catch on that he actually cared about anything.

 

“Low blow, twinkletoes.”

 

Alex rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll survive. Did you ask Adam before stealing his trash can?”

  
  
“I told you, it’s not a trash can.”

  
  
“Les -”

  
  
“I left a note.”

  
  
“A note.”

  
  
“Yeah.”

  
  
Alex paused, pursing her lips and wishing her legs and feet would hurry up and go numb. The icy burning at the beginning of an ice bath was always the worst. “Did you call him names in the note?”

  
  
“Pretty sure that’s eighty percent of our relationship.”

  
  
“And the other twenty percent is the love that dare not speak its name?”

  
  
“If you’re referencing a poem we learned in English class, it will never count as a sick burn.”

  
  
“Yes, because I think of _Les Averman_ when I think of an expert in talking trash.”

  
  
Les opened his mouth to protest, but he was cut off by Adam opening the door to the room.

  
  
“Hey Alex, Averman.”

  
  
“Banks,” Les muttered.

  
  
“Oh, kiss and make up, you know he had nothing to do with the dinner prank, Les,” Alex protested, as neither boy made a move to speak.

  
  
“No, but he had no problem trying to beat the crap out of Charlie this morning.”

  
  
“Because Charlie just stood there and did nothing,” Adam retorted sarcastically. He had his fists clenched at his side, and she could see the muscle in Les’ jaw ticking from across the room.

  
  
“As a reluctant bystander to this idiocy, if you told me Charlie got beat up in a fight, I’d ask you what _Charlie_ did,” Alex chimed in. Both boys looked ready to start throwing punches, and honest to God, _how was mediating this her life_?

  
  
“Well, you’ve figured him out quickly. Took Guy years to figure that out,” Les replied. His clenched jaw relaxed into a small grin.

  
  
“Probably would have picked up on it earlier if he wasn’t always sucking face with Connie,” Adam added dryly. His fists unclenched.

Les grinned at him and whatever tension remained between the two of them blew over. Adam took a seat on Alex’s bed and began tossing the nerf ball back and forth with Les as if nothing had happened between them. _Boys_ , Alex thought with a bit of disgust. There was something wrong when they could beat the crap out of each other one minute and be fine the next. She checked her watch with a sigh, counting down the minutes until she could pull her legs out of the ice. At this angle, she could see that Adam had a bruise forming on one cheekbone. Whatever fight that had occurred looked like it must have been a free for all. She thought about asking what had happened, but she decided she would just ask Julie later. Les and Adam were getting along again. No need to kick the hornet’s nest. Or duck’s nest, as it were.

  
  
“My wallet is in the bag over there,” she told Adam. “Go ahead and grab your card.”

  
  
Adam frowned and barely caught the ball Les had lobbed right at his face. “Alex -”

  
  
“Relax. No one else knows. I can’t help that Les figured it out.”

  
  
Adam sighed and leaned down to fish the card out of her bag. “Fine.”

  
  
“I won’t tell - but you _owe_ me, Banksie,” Les chimed in.

  
  
Adam rolled his eyes and sighed again. “What?”

  
  
“You’re going with me to Alex’s ballet.”

  
  
“What? _No_ ,” Adam protested. He looked horrified. “No offense, Alex.”

  
  
“None taken,” Alex said dryly.

  
“Make Julie!”

  
  
“She’s already going. And you are too unless you want me to tell Charlie who paid for dinner,” Les added in a smug tone.

  
  
Adam whipped the nerf ball at him harder than necessary, although Les caught it before it hit him in the face. “Fine,” he replied in a long-suffering tone. “We can go watch your girlfriend dance.”

  
  
Alex could see Les blushing and she was sure she was as well. It was Adam’s favorite joke to make, probably because it left the both of them spluttering. Adam was quiet until you got to know him – and then he was a sassy _troll_. She had no idea why Julie thought he was the nice one in the group. Luckily, Alex was saved from a reply when she noticed ten minutes had elapsed. She pulled her legs out of the ice with a sigh of relief, quickly rolling the legs of her sweatpants down after drying them. She jammed her feet into fuzzy slippers, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. Even if it worked, she _hated_ ice baths. Adam tossed the nerf ball her direction, which she promptly fumbled and dropped into the bucket of ice water. “Oh, hell.”

  
  
Both boys laughed at her.

  
  
“You _know_ I can’t catch,” she protested, flopping back into her desk chair. She fished the ball out of the bucket and squeezed the water out of it with another shiver – and then tried to lob it at Adam. It missed. Spectacularly. The boys laughed at her again. “Shut up,” she muttered.

  
  
“You start the English paper yet?” Adam asked her.

  
  
Alex shook her head. “No. Hopefully tonight.”

  
  
“Think you can edit mine at some point before Tuesday?”

  
  
“Sure. You too, Les.”

  
  
“Thanks.”

  
They probably would have stuck around all night, but Alex kicked them out so that she could actually get some work done. When the two of them left to go find Julie, she shook her head with a grin and a bit of relief. She was too exhausted to play bystander to whatever Ducks drama had gone down that morning, and her English paper wouldn’t write itself. _Priorities_. She could catch Julie for a good gossip session later. It was Saturday, so the odds were good that Connie and Guy would be _on_ again anyway. Which was kind of gross to think about, and wasn’t helping her write her paper at all, so Alex brushed that thought away and got down to business.

 


End file.
